Saturday, April 23, 2011

Happy Easter!

Passover is almost over, and it seemed rather painless this year, as I continued to prepare tasty dishes in my new kitchen. Perhaps I will keep this up, now that I have a pleasant, relatively well-organized place to prepare food. Last night, I made myself a rare piece of red meat, a broiled shoulder lamb chop and a baked yam, along with one of those tasty bags of microwaved mixed vegetables in olive oil and butter that are available now; it took a while to bake the yam, but otherwise, not long. I fixed R. crab cakes, Trader Joe's frozen ones. I can make crab cakes myself, but since I wasn't going to eat them, it was faster this way. When I was a child, I used to think it was an accident that Passover and Easter came so close together, but then I learned the story connected to Easter and realized, that despite the apparent and enormous differences between us, the Jewish community of the U.S., and the Christian majority, there was indeed a very important connection. And then, of course, the fact that we were scorned in some quarters and even hated became an even greater mystery to me, and that ironically, for large patches of history, Jews had to celebrate Passover with their doors open because of the blood libel, the notion that Jews made their matzo out of Christian children's blood. I like that Jews turned this into a part of the seder, the notion that the door was to be opened for the wandering prophet Elijah, and a place set at the table for him. Otherwise, wouldn't the children be terrified to think that people might come in at any moment and murder them where they sat for the imagined sin of killing Christian children? I wish all of you a lovely and sweet holiday, and am glad that we are able to live together in peace at this turn in history. I hope that one day this is so of Muslims and Jews, Muslims and Christians and the rest of us as well.

1 comment:

Robin
said...

It has always always been rather baffling to me, even as a child, that Christians, any Christians could hate Jewish people with such passion (and ignorance). The historical connections are so obvious. Glad you shared your childhood reminiscences on this subject. Also glad you enjoyed Passover!

About Me

It feels odd to tell people, when they ask you what you do, that you are a poet. It is of course not a proper profession, if by "proper" one means a job that brings in money.
It is most certainly an occupation though. Reading, writing, going to poetry events make up a sizable percentage of my life.